Wire-trap connectors are used for making an electrical connection between an external electrical wire, having a stripped distal end exposing the conductor, and a wire clamping electrical contact located within the connector. Normally, in order to make an electrical connection between the conductor and the clamping contact, the stripped end of the wire is inserted within a wire insertion opening located on the outside of the wire-trap connector. Once the wire is inserted within the connector, the wire clamping electrical contact forms an electrical connection with the wire and prevents the wire's extraction from the connector without the use of a wire extraction tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,456 claims a wire-trap connector with an over-stress feature on a contact beam. The connector is soldered to a printed circuit board by means of a contact solder tail which is soldered by means of a through-hole in the printed circuit board. Circuit boards constructed with through-holes allow the connector to be wave soldered to a printed circuit. This through-hole connection requires additional steps and board costs when surface reflow mounting is the primary assembly process. In a new fixture, the opportunity to have through-holes is eliminated to achieve three goals in the assembly--smaller, cheaper, and more aesthetically pleasing. Any components of the assembly attachable to circuit board by through-holes defeats these three goals. Of the wire trap connectors contending for use in the new fixture, the wire-trap connector described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,456 is thus eliminated. The level of precision in the process of attaching circuit elements is not the same for wave soldering as it is for reflowing. Moreover, any use of that wire-trap connector in the new assembly would take away the cost advantages of the new assembly because of the need for wave soldering a wire-trap connector in an assembly whose other components are reflowable. This is true because separate connection techniques are needed--wave soldering and reflowing--rather than one.
In view of the above, it is an object of the invention to provide a compression mountable wire-trap connector.
It is a further object to avoid a wave soldering step in the manufacture of a wire trap connector.
In addition, it is an object of the invention to make a wire trap connector that needs no through holes in a printed circuit board.
It is also an object of the invention to provide for a wire trap connector that may be secured to a printed circuit board by the same means--whether by reflow, wave soldering or other means--as other circuit elements for attachment to the printed circuit board.